FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CHARLIE TROTTER - PAGE 5

Chef Curtis Duffy will cook his final service at Avenues Saturday, and after that, the two-Michelin star flagship restaurant of The Peninsula Hotel will close indefinitely. Avenues will be searching for a new chef de cuisine in the interim. According to a press release sent out, the hotel will also be "evaluating a concept change" and "the possibility of a renovation" in early 2012. The restaurant space will be available for meetings and events, the release continued, and Peninsula wine director Michael Muser will be hosting a series of wine dinners in the coming months. Duffy, as first reported in the Tribune, will be opening his own restaurant in the West Loop, scheduled for a 2012 opening.

There are so many opportunities here of rare, rich experiences which I need to thank Chef Trotter for. From the housewives, doctors, and others who come to work as guest chefs to famous chefs like Tetsuya, Toque and Alain Ducasse. I've always learned and appreciated from these people who have a great passion for food. Cooking for inner-city students, talking to them … it's been a fulfilling experience to share and hopefully inspire. The recent trip to the Fancy Food Show in New York showed me how to reach excellence at every level - I think meeting The Red Hot Chili Peppers at Mercer's Lounge was the highlight of that trip!

A series of cooking demonstrations in the fruit and vegetable garden of the Chicago Botanic Garden is set for 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays during July. Chef Michael Foley of Printer's Row restaurant will prepare summer grilled foods on July 1 and chef Charlie Trotter of Charlie Trotter's will demonstrate his cuisine using seasonal fruits and vegetables on July 8. The botanic garden is on Lake-Cook Road in Glencoe, just east of the Edens Expressway. Admission is free; parking is $3 per car. Call 708-835-5440.

Charlie Trotter's cooking prowess is widely acknowledged, but on Saturday he was honored for contributions of another kind. For his "outstanding commitment to the community and social responsibility," Trotter received the 2004 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Grant Achatz moved up the aisle of the plane, his carry-on draped over his gaunt frame. It was October at Reagan National Airport, a rare moment of calm for Chicago's top chef, whose wary eyes belong to a man older than 36, and whose life has been blessed and cursed with incident. He was traveling with his two young sons, and they had just visited with the parents of his girlfriend, food journalist Heather Sperling. They were headed home to Chicago, trudging through the cabin of the plane toward coach, when his younger son, Keller, swung his backpack into a well-dressed man in first class.

`Cooking with Patrick Clark: A Tribute to the Man and His Cuisine" (Ten Speed Press, $35) is a memorial to the late New York chef who died last year while awaiting a heart transplant. It's a cookbook with 60 of Clark's dishes plus 50 more from fellow chefs saluting Clark, who was chef at Tavern on the Green. All royalties from the sale of the book will benefit the Patrick Clark Family Trust, a non-profit fund to assist in the education and support of Clark's five children. The book was compiled by Chicago chef Charlie Trotter and his staff with help from Clark's wife, Lynette, and other chefs.

Francois Kwaku-Dongo, Spago: "I get only one day off, so the restaurant I like to go to most is Charlie Trotter's (816 W. Armitage Ave., 773-248-6228), where he's done a lot of special dinners with the pre-eminent chefs of Europe and America. For being in this city such a long time, he's maintained such great quality and consistency. Every time I go there, there's always something new and exciting that he's doing, and that's very impressive."

A benefit dinner featuring a multi-course tasting menu prepared by nine outstanding young American chefs will be held to raise money for the James Beard Foundation on April 22 at Charlie Trotter's restaurant, 816 W. Armitage Ave. Combining their talents with host Charlie Trotter will be chefs Harlan Peterson of Tapawingo, Ellsworth, Mich.; Mark Miller of the Coyote Cafe, Sante Fe, N.M.; Joachim Splichal of Patina in Los Angeles; Odessa Piper of L`Etoil, Madison, Wis.; Gary Danko of Chateau Souverain in the Napa Valley; Emeril Lagasse of Emeril's, New Orleans; plus Chicago chefs Jean Joho of the Everest Room and Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill.